Homepage of Mark R Johnson

Main menu

Post navigation

Weapons. Lots of weapons.

Firstly: thanks to everyone who posted and contacted me with initial alpha feedback. It is hugely appreciated – once the initial alpha is up, I will either open a forum or create a specific post/page for feedback. In the mean time:

This is a pretty game-mechanic-heavy blog entry, and is also pretty screenshot-light. You have been warned.

Weapons divide down into four categories: stabbing weapons, cutting weapons, hitting weapons, and impaling weapons. Each has an advantage and a disadvantage. Each also has a “to-damage” chance, and a “to-penetrate” chance, which is how effective it is at cutting through flesh, rather than just damaging it, and hitting the bone beneath. For creatures that have only one ‘layer’ – like skeletons which have only bone, or Shoggoths with only ‘flesh’, the to-damage chance is used. For creatures with chitin instead of interior bone, the chances are simply reversed – the to-hit chance will damage their chitin, while the to-penetrate chance determines whether you manage to hit the weak flesh beneath.

Note: you and any other creature can, technically, wield anything you’re strong enough to pick up (which is to say, you can wield an Orc arm from the start of the name, but never will you be able to swing a Titan’s corpse). However, non-weapon ‘weapons’ are generally so ineffective it will likely only be a last resort you would ever do this. I’m also working on a variety of unarmed/barehanded combat options, too.

Also, in terms of advantages/disadvantages, I will not here list things like price, availability, etc. Simply how they perform as weapons.

Stabbing:

Stabbing weapons consist of kunais, daggers, knives, and sais.ADVANTAGES: Light; therefore easiest to wield very accurately.DISADVANTAGES: Shortest reach; can be harder to target body parts on larger, more complex creatures.

Cutting:

Cutting weapons consist of scimitars, shortswords, sabres, katanas and longswords.ADVANTAGES: Can occasionally be used to parry incoming attacks (as well as a shield); very small chance of pinning foe to objects.DISADVANTAGES: Requires more skill than other weapons, thus requiring higher dexterity.

Hitting:

Hitting weapons consist of clubs, flails, maces and axes.ADVANTAGES: Can knock back targets; stun targets; and break bones without needing to get through flesh first.DISADVANTAGES: By far the heaviest class of weapons; therefore hardest to wield accurately.

Impaling:

Impaling weapons consist of spears, pikes, halberds and ranseurs.ADVANTAGES: Longest range, so can hit up to taller creatures; can pin creatures to objects.DISADVANTAGES: Unwieldy, so greater dexterity required to use accurately (mitigated if you haven’t moved the previous turn).

Accuracy of weapon use is dependent on two things – strength vs the weight of the weapon, and dexterity vs how ‘wieldy’ the weapon is. If you wield a weapon too heavy for a character of your strength to use effectively, your accuracy will decrease. Similarly, if you wield two weapons whose total weight is too high, your accuracy will decrease for the same reason. The more unwieldy a weapon you wield, the harder it is to use it accurately, so you’re far more likely to land a knife accurately than a halberd, given the same dexterity.

This then ties into another factor, which is the height of creatures. The shorter the attacker is and the taller the target is, the fewer parts of its body it can hit. Without a long weapon, you cannot hit the head of any creature a Cyclops or taller, for example. By contrast, large creatures hitting small creatures are much more likely to hit! Effectively, the quality of your weapon; the type of weapon you wield; the height of your target; and your strength and dexterity determine your effectiveness in combat.

So, the key question – do these four types seem balanced?

Coming Monday 24th: Options for a new player, and embarking on your adventure.

Seems like a solid start, though somehow I was expecting some ranged examples, or I guess moreso less common stuff like bolos, nets, etc in the mix—the sorts of items that perhaps don’t directly deal damage but set things up for the next turn or a member of your merry band.

@ Leatra – firstly, yes. Generally only shields can block, but swords also have a small chance of allowing a block. However, they are much more fragile than a shield (obviously), though your character won’t even try to block an axe attack with your sword. Swords can parry other swords and try to knock aside pikes/knives, but won’t make any headway against blunt weapons.

Secondly… sort of. You choose which limb to attack, and that assumes the generic attack for that weapon type (stab, hit, cut, etc) but if a weapon gets stuck in your foe, then you gain extra options depending on what exactly that weapon is!

@ Ryan – yep. If you have only close-combat weapons and no magic, the only way to attack a Titan’s head, for instance, is by climbing it. Obviously, the Titan might not take kindly to that…

@ Getter – ah, ranged weapons are still heavily being worked on, while much of the close-combat weapons here are set in stone. Arrows, throwing knives, shurikens, nets and a few other things are being gradually planned out, and hopefully some/all should make it into the first alpha. However, close combat is a bigger focus for starters.

I suppose the focus is on simplifying the game mechanics here, because its almost like you’ve created “classes” for weapons that significantly restricts their expression.

Also, I’ve added the following CSS using Personalized Web to your site, it might be worth looking into modifying your WordPress theme so its easier to read the large comments that often get posted here: